54 former nursing homes have made offers to the Department of Integration to provide housing to migrants claiming asylum and to Ukrainians since January, according to information released to Independent TD, Carol Nolan.
Minister Roderic O’Gorman confirmed to the Laois Offaly TD that 14 former nursing homes are currently in use to provide such accommodation, with another 7 at formal review stage in the process, and negotiations also ongoing with another property which previously operated as a nursing home.
The minister confirmed that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth has 12 former nursing homes in contract for accommodation for people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine and that from the launch of the new offers portal in January 2023, 54 offers of former nursing homes have been received.
Of these, seven have progressed to a formal review process with a view to negotiating a contract.
In addition, The International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) – which provides accommodation for those who come to Ireland and claim asylum, is currently utilising two properties which previously operated as nursing homes, while negotiations are ongoing with one provider regarding a former nursing home at present, the Minister said.
Minister O’Gorman insisted that given the challenges currently being faced in the nursing home sector and ‘noticing a small trend emerging’, the Department of Health (DOH) agreed with DCEDIY, to change the procurement guidelines around accommodation for persons under temporary protection in order to remove from consideration active nursing homes that were still registered operators with HIQA on or after the date of 1 September 2022:
“With the changing situation with regard to accommodation for persons under temporary protection in mind, DOH has reviewed this agreed policy with a view to providing longer-term certainty to the nursing home sector and potential providers of temporary accommodation services,” he said.
The minister concluded his reply to Deputy Nolan by stating that the decision has been made to adopt a more flexible approach and to allow the conversion of nursing homes into accommodation centres for international protection applicants (IPAs) and/or beneficiaries of temporary protections (BOTPs) after 18 months following deregistration from the HIQA’s register. He maintained that this allows for an appropriate closure process for residents and staff of nursing homes, while preventing facilities from being empty indefinitely where they might provide a source of accommodation for IPAs and/or BOTPs.
“Stringent criteria is applied to disused nursing home offers as to all offers received for commercial accommodation.”
Deputy Nolan welcomed the application of such criteria in light of the escalating crisis in the nursing home sector that she says is ‘largely related to unsustainable energy and operational costs and the lack of appropriate Government funding for the private/voluntary nursing home sector that has left many operators with no choice but to consider closure.’
Almost 24,000 people are now living in accommodation provided by the State for those who claim to be asylum seekers. That number has jumped 26% since January of this year, when some 19,000 claimants were being accommodated.
The numbers being housed in the asylum system has more than tripled in two years, up from 7,244 in December 2021 to around 24,000 at the end of September 2023.
Some 91,000 Ukrainians have also arrived in the country since February 2022, with new arrivals now housed in tents due to a shortage of accommodation.
Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) previously warned that the sector is in “crisis”, with rising costs and what they described as a lack of state support contributing to closures.
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